How To Download Music (MP3s) Online:

Written for Tanya, Aunties, Grandmas, and other non-technical types

I get asked for advice on how to download music from the internet all the time. Now, I can simply send folks to this page for an easy step-by-step guide on how to find and download music from the internet using torrents.

Family geeks are welcome to point there relatives to this page.

Before starting: Always have your virus scanner up-to-date, and running before attempting to download any torrents.

Step-by-Step Guide to Downloading Music with Torrents

1. Download and install uTorrent. There are other torrent programs, but this is definately one of the best.

2. Go to The Pirate Bay, BTjunkie, or other Torrent Search site. This tutorial focuses on using thepiratebay.org -- but most torrent search sites work very similiarly.

3. At thepiratebay.org - Search for the name of the band you want to downloaded. Select the "Audio" option (see diagram below):

4. After your results appear, sort torrent results by "Seeds". Look on the top-right of the results for the "SE" (see image below). The more seeds, the faster the download.

5. Look through the titles. Do you see the Album name you are looking for? Discographies contain all albums from a particular artist -- so discographies are a good place to look for a particular song or album, as well.

See these sample results for "Nine Inch Nails" sorted by seeds:

6.Click to view the details of the torrent. Have a look at the file types: are they mp3s? If not, go back and find a different torrent.

Look (read, even) at the comments under the torrent info. Are the comments positive? Make sure no comments say the torrent contains a virus.

7. A message box similar to the following should appear (see image below). Allow the file to be opened with uTorrent.

8. For most bands, you'll find torrents for their complete discography. Don't be discouraged from discographies if you only want 1 or 2 songs from a particular band -- uTorrent allows you to pick and choose individual songs or whole albums. See image below:

Choose which songs/albums you want, and uncheck and leave the rest. Press "OK".

9. Your download will start and a window similar to the one below will appear:

This window tells you the status of your download. Don't worry about all the buttons and options. Just wait until it says your torrent is 100% complete. (The torrent illustrated above is at 9.2%)

10. When your download is complete, right-click on the name of the torrent, and a list of options will appear like this:

(If you don't know where your music is downloaded to on your computer) Click "Open Containing Folder". This will take you directly to wherever the music has been stored on your computer.